Pearl Re-Stringing

The need for re-stringing PEARLS

Most gold and other types of jewellery can be rinsed under water and carefully cleaned with a very soft toothbrush or similar for a 'spruce up', apart from specialist cleaning. Unfortunately, this is not the case with pearls.

With strands of pearls, dirt and grease eventually gets in between the pearls and attacks the material upon which they are threaded. As the thread weakens, the more chance there is of it snapping. Eventually, the thread will look discoloured, stretched and tired.

As with everything else, the ‘life’ of an object depends on how well you look after it. Typical recommendations for re-stringing pearls are usually every 1-2 years. This depends on how often you wear your pearls and how well you care for them after use.

• ‘Baroque’ Pearls
  The fashionable baroque type pearls (often multi-strand) usually cost less than £100 or so. Due to the original cost, most people would not have them re-strung until four or five years (if at all) after purchase and then it would sometimes make sense to just buy a new one in the latest style.
• Classic Pearls
  For the more classic single strand style of round or round type pearls, which usually cost well over £300, you will want to maintain these well as they are expensive and precious.

When to have your pearls re-strung

As a guideline, if you wear your pearls weekly or more often, you are probably going to need to re-string once every 2 or 4 years or so. If you are wearing your pearls once a month or less, then re-stringing every 4 or 5 years will usually suffice.

Look carefully between your pearls at the thread. If it is bright white (original thread - white), they probably do not need re-stringing. If the thread is greasy, turning grey or you can see dirt accumulation, especially near the drill hole of the pearl, it is probably time to have them re-strung. The longer you leave it, the more difficult re-stringing can be as the thread can get stuck in the drill hole.

Free, no-obligation re-stringing quote

E-mail service@absolutepearls.co.uk or telephone 0151 625 7688 for a free quotation, giving full details of the pearls – size, shape, colour, number of pearls, length of jewellery item (total length if multi-strand) and approximate valuation.